My guest this episode is the distinguished Kumi Naidoo - a human rights and climate justice activist. Naidoo first began his journey at the age of 15 fighting against the then apartheid government in South Africa by organising school boycotts. He was arrested several times for civil disobedience and when the government imposed a state of emergency, he was forced to go underground and flee to the UK, where he became a Rhodes scholar. He eventually returned to South Africa in 1990 when Mandela...

What is it like to be a woman scientist in India? Why don’t we see enough of them? If you’re quick to point the superstar ones, sadly they’re not always the norm. In fact, research has shown that women in academia are expected to be much more competent than their male counterparts to be considered for the same role. It’s this bias that got Aashima Dogra and Nandita Jayaraj to start ‘The Life of Science’ web portal to document stories of regular women in science, and the systemic bias they...

Artificial intelligence or AI is quite the buzzword these days. Many of us would not have missed the news pouring in about AI - sometimes it is promising and at times, it isn’t reassuring. But Ankush Sabharwal, founder and CEO of CoRover, believes AI is more than a buzzword. It is here to stay - simply because an average human is already relying on AI in ways that they don’t realise. CoRover is a platform for conversational AI. The kind of AI Chatbot-as-a-service (CaaS) that we encounter...

How often have you shared a digital artwork on social media to simply convey your thoughts on an issue?  The power of digital art to convey dissent or to protest has grown to become one of the most preferred ways to vent frustration or show solidarity. Its creation is not intended to sell (maybe that will soon change), but it does often cause one to react. A reason probably why many of these artists choose to be anonymous. Smish Designs is a digital artist and illustrator whose work is a...

In many ways, Anjali Gopalan has been a torchbearer for the LGBTQIA+ community. She started Naz Foundation in 1994 to lead a dedicated fight against HIV/AIDS issues and defend those marginalised due to their sexuality. Naz Foundation is the original petitioner to challenge Section 377 criminalising homosexuality, an archaic law which was struck down by the Supreme Court four years back. Honouring her persistent fight for equality, she has received the Knight of the Legion of Honour, one of...

The Bombay Canteen is considered as one of the most popular restaurants in the country and its food most sought out. It has been adjudged as The Best Restaurant in India in 2018 by Conde Nast Traveller and was also included in its list of 100 places in the world to eat. And as the restaurant’s former Executive Chef, Thomas Zacharias’ constant innovation of the Indian food became its pièce de résistance.  Through his latest venture, The Locavore, Chef Zacharias is keen to create a community...

As someone who has a keen interest in space, I’m very excited to finally feature Dr. Susmita Mohanty, spaceship designer and a serial space entrepreneur, who started India’s first private space startup, Earth2Orbit - at a time when the Indian space industry didn’t welcome private players. She had also previously founded MoonFront and LIQUIFER, worked briefly with NASA & Boeing and as a climate activist, visited both the Artic & Antarctica on invitation.  A protégée of Arthur C....

Tech unions are considered a rarity in Silicon Valley. So, when Google employees announced the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU), named after Google’s parent company, it ended up becoming a catalyst for white collar workers to stand up against injustices in the workplace.  Raksha Muthukumar was one of the union’s earliest members and helped in its formation. A GeorgiaTech graduate, during her work stint with Google, she saw the growing discontent among employees over Google’s sexual...

Who make up the Indian newsrooms? Do journalists cover diverse voices?  Priyadharsini is the founder director of The Blue Club (TBC), a grassroots media organisation that amplifies stories of women from marginalised communities and the LGBTQIA. TBC is solely led by a team of members from such discriminated communities. An Oxfam India report in 2019 shows how badly skewed representation of varied communities is in our newsrooms. A case in point - the report states that of the 121 newsroom...

I’ve been of the opinion that death penalty is justified for those convicted of heinous crimes. But in doing so, am I completely isolating the perpetrator and their actions to this one crime? Does the onus of the death penalty fall majorly on those marginalised in our society? My guest this episode is Dr. Anup Surendranath. He is the Executive Director of Project 39A and an Assistant Professor of Law at National Law University in Delhi. Project 39A’s Death Penalty India report is the first...

Dr. Revathi, or Kutti Revathi as she is often known as, is my first guest on the podcast that I’m talking to for the second time. The last time I spoke to her was a decade ago, and the issues that mattered to her then matter even today. She is a prominent Tamil poet, writer and lyricist whose works have largely centered on body politics and oppression.  Her second work, Mulaigal (Breasts), published in 2002, that spoke about female sexuality and the use of Tamil words like mulaigal and yoni...

Can you remember the time when the topic of love and marriage was discussed around you, the issue of caste was never brought up? A quick Google search on this issue will throw up a spate of news about inter-caste marriages and the incessant battles couples often face. The latest Pew Research findings that came out in June 2021 confirmed exactly this - we aren’t as free as we think we are in choosing our mate. ⠀ This important conversation around our obsession with caste in matters regarding...

There has been much talk about diversity and inclusion in the workplace, galvanised by the growing clout of social media.But how much of that translates for the transgender community? Recently, Karnataka became the first state government in India to reserve 1% of all government jobs for the transgender community. A significant move, considering that many transgender individuals, abandoned by their families and robbed of their dignity and livelihood, are forced to beg and/or become sexual...

If you’re a person with a vagina, be it binary or non binary, using public toilets has always been an icky experience. So what do we do? We either go long hours not peeing, hover over the toilet or in the worst case scenario, try to wipe the toilet seat.  When Deep Bajaj noticed how his wife and his mother struggled through these problems, even through pregnancy and arthritis, he decided to do something about it and came up with PeeBuddy - India’s first portable, disposable and environment...

This episode is the second part of my conversation with Nikesh Murali, writer and creator of the acclaimed podcast, Indian Noir. Before you listen to this episode, hope you’ve already checked out the prequel to this conversation where Nikesh and I talk about Indian Noir becoming a Spotify exclusive, podcasts and social media, the audio boom, mental health during the pandemic and his initial years of struggle as a writer.  Check out Indian Noir at: https://www.indiannoir.com Check out...

I’m really excited to share with you all that Maharani Talks has completed a year! And one of the first podcasters I reached out to is Nikesh Murali, who has been supportive from day one. So you can understand that I finally got to sit down with him and have a wonderful discussion about his incredible work as a writer, voice actor and as the creator behind Indian Noir, an acclaimed chart topping podcast that tells thrilling crime and horror stories. And has now become a Spotify exclusive!...

I remember when I watched Delhi Crime, it was gut wrenching, and took me back to the time when news reports were trickling in about Jyoti Singh’s gruesome rape and death. The show gave me a chance to understand how the Delhi Police went about nabbing all those involved.  The hard hitting docu-drama was awarded the International Emmy Award in November last year, becoming the first show from India to win an Emmy. But the show was initially declined by Netflix. It’s this need to champion...

In 2014, Arjun Bahl and Thanish Thomas along with three of their co-founders, Hanif Kureshi, Giulia Ambrogi and Akshat Nauriyal, went to Shahpur Jat in New Delhi with a few artists and decided to paint the walls with art that was both vibrant and relayed a story or a message. With that, St+art India Foundation was formed and soon snowballed into a national movement that would propel street art in the country. The not-for-profit organisation’s idea to get art out of the galleries and away...

When Amrita Samant decided to pursue her passion and take up maternity and child photography back in 2013, little did she realise she would help open up a whole new industry in India, paving the way for many more such photographers. Over the years, Amrita has done over 1400 shoots spread across different countries, won multiple international awards and scaled up to leading an all-women’s team. Through her photography, she has run campaigns to highlight the importance of breastmilk donation...

When Varun Sheth was keen to go abroad after his graduation, he tried to raise funds for his education through crowdsourcing from his relatives and thereby, did his first ever crowdfunding campaign. And this was even years before he co-founded Ketto, along with his co-founders Zaheer Adenwala and Kunal Kapoor. As the first mover in the industry, the eight year old company has become a trusted name for making your donations count. And to actually knowing if it benefitted someone. Ketto (from...

It’s not easy to reveal to the world that you’re a sexual minority. Now imagine you’re an Indian. The stakes are that much higher. Dr. Varuna Srinivasan’s decision to come out as a bisexual woman shows that she is not afraid to take a stand & voice her opinion. Her inability to find safe spaces to open up made her become a gender justice advocate and also build an online community to do just that - to be a safe space for others to address their sexual health concerns. She was named...

It’s been a year since work from home became a norm across all companies. A recent survey by Microsoft revealed that 40% of global workers are considering leaving their employers this year based on how leaders managed this new challenge. The pandemic has completely overhauled our idea of work culture. In this special episode, I discuss with Anitha M Lakshmi, a Human Resources advisor, what are employees looking for as the pandemic shows no abatement. What is the work culture going to look...

Coffee culture is a big part of our lives. But most of us know it as either instant, espresso or filter coffee. Step in: cold brew - the art of steeping ground coffee beans in cold temperature, bringing out a more intense flavour.  And this is where Arman Sood and his two co-founders, Ashwajeet Singh and Ajai Thandi, decided to step in with their company, Sleepy Owl Coffee, one of the first movers in the cold brew coffee market. What started in a two bedroom apartment in Delhi, Sleepy Owl...

As a parent, you’re always in search of heartfelt books that you can uncover for your children. For me, that search has also been to balance the storytelling not just by international authors, but equally by Indian authors. It’s this curiosity that has led me to have this wonderful conversation with one of the noted authors of children’s literature in India.  In a decade long career, Natasha Sharma has written and published 21 books for children. After quitting a corporate job, her decision...